For just the second time in Borden’s history they sent a runner to the state cross country finals.

Sophomore Julien Magallanes placed 15th in the Semi-State race on Oct. 26. The top 10 runners from non-advancing teams moved on to last Saturday’s race at Terre Haute.

Magallanes finished 104th there, posting a time of 16:52.7.

In the Semi-State race, Magallanes posted a time of 15:57, which was more than 20 seconds slower than the goal he set for himself going into the race.

Magallanes said he feels like he wasn’t running at his best in that race because he hadn’t been pushed from a competition standpoint in the races leading up to it.

“Lately we’ve ran some smaller meets and no one has been able to push me,” he said. “I think that was a factor (in the slower time) at semi-state.”

Magallanes, who is the son of Erika and Andress Magallanes, is a former basketball player at Borden and was in the program when they won the Class A basketball tournament last spring.

He decided to give up basketball

and focus exclusively on running.

“I really want a higher finish at state than this year over my last two years of high school,” he said.

Magallanes said his goal is to make the state finals in both cross country and track for the rest of his high school career.

An extension to that is to see his teams get there as well.

This year Borden qualified for regionals as a team and finished fifth.

The Braves were 11th at Semi-State, which was not good enough to qualify for the state finals as a team.

Magallanes won both the sectional and regional races and was 15th at Semi-State.

To help Magallanes and his team reach that goal, Magallanes said there is a plan in place to keep moving toward that goal.

“I’ve been planning on getting Will Little and Gavin Tipker to run with me this off-season and getting my times in practice,” he said. “I want them to run with me so we can push each other. “

Most athletes in Indiana dream of playing high school basketball, but when comparing the two, Magallanes said there is no comparison.

In fact, he said he had more fun advancing to semi-state with the cross country team then he did winning it all with the Borden boys’ basketball team.

“I just wasn’t as close with the boys on the basketball team as I was with the cross country team,” he said.

When asked what it is about the sport of running he loves, Magallanes said there are two main reasons.

“Running is one of those things that makes me feel good,” he said. “I know I am good at it and I like the compliments because I am a sophomore. Plus running as a team and having fun together is another thing I really like about it.”

He said he started running when he was in the third grade.

It was at one of his brother, Nathen’s practices.

“I found running in the third grade watching my brother run,” Magallanes said. “Then I ended up running with him and I ended up beating them all out.”

Magallanes hopes his running ability will help him get into a good college.

As for what he plans to study or do after school, he said he hasn’t gotten to the point of deciding those things yet.

In track, Magallanes competes in the 4 x 400, 4 x 800, the mile and the 800-meter.

As a freshman, Magallanes didn’t excel in track as much as he expected because of Borden’s tournament run giving him a late start on the season.

Over the summer leading up to this cross country season Magallanes logged more than 600 miles of running. That distance wore through three pair of shoes.

Even though the seasons over and the track season doesn’t start for a while, he said he plans to run three Marathons.

“Over the summer I ran 15 miles a day, my goal is to run in a marathon.”

That kind of work in the off-season will likely keep moving Magallanes up the board among the state’s best runners.

It will also make the small Clark County school an annual threat to be reckoned with for years to come.